Project Overview: USAID commissioned Namuh to capture stories of their work fighting the Ebola outbreak in Liberia in 2014. The photos, video, and written stories were shared through their Daily Dispatches and Portraits of Courage blog series featured on their website, social media, and government communication during the response.
Background: The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa was unprecedented. No one was prepared. After the number of cases spiraled out of control the U.S. took leadership over the response in Liberia. Teams were dispatched from a myriad of government agencies to lead different components of the response. USAMRIID setup an Ebola lab for testing blood samples. CDC worked closely with the Liberian Ministry of Health to collect and report data. United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) sent their troops to help build Ebola treatment units and train healthcare professionals to work in them. And, the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) coordinated everyone from the U.S. Embassy in central Monrovia. There wasn't time to make a plan, but they knew the work needed to be documented so we worked daily with the DART team to identify major events and stories that needed to be covered. We visited USAID's partner organizations and traveled with them throughout the country to document their activities. This meant being constantly flexible to changing schedules, writing stories and editing while exhausted after long days, and staying in rudimentary lodging with limited communication.
Outcomes: In the end we produced a film about a nurse treating Ebola patients at the IMC Ebola treatment unit in Bong County, a series of portraits and written profiles of the Disaster Assistance Response Team deployed to Liberia for the response, a series of blog posts documenting various elements of the situation and response, and ongoing photos capturing the situation.
About the Client: USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential.
Client: USAID
Videographer: Morgana Wingard
Editor: Morgana Wingard
Ty Humphrey
Logistics Officer